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No longer able to use right and left click buttons on touchpad
My laptop touchpad is no longer functioning properly, though an external mouse works fine.
I could probably get used to tapping on the mouse pad to click links and the way it now scrolls on the side, but if I want to right click or control what I highlight, I'm out of luck. I do a lot of cutting and pasting so highlighting specific words or phrases using the right click method is kind of important for me. The pointer is also crazy jumpy.
Can someone tell me how to get my touchpad mouse to function the way I'm used to? (using the touchpad to move the mouse and the buttons to right and left click)
Before the answer is, go to mouse properties and click on dell touchpad to change settings, I have tried this. When I "click to change dell touchpad settings" on the lovely picture, the mouse properties window just closes. If buttons, pointers, pointer options, wheel, or hardware is where this is done, I'm all ears as to what to tweak.
The hardware listed is Alps pointing-device. The driver is up-to-date and I double checked using UniBlue's Driver Scanner.
Thanks so much for any help you can give and the time you took to read this even if you don't know either :)
pulsarbleu
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April 24th, 2011 11:00
Hi Again,
Ok, I now know this is because of the driver update. I went through Windows many help items including removing the driver.
Here's how that went down: Removed driver. Windows rebooted. Touchpad buttons and function on screen worked the way they used to. Perfect. Windows went for new driver as it said it would and rebooted. Windows got the exact same driver and the buttons no longer work.
It's an endless loop.
I've installed all the driver updates suggested by Dell on a system scan and the one for troubleshooting touchpad problems. All of them worked except the touchpad one. I tried to install the touchpad update R 165804, but get the message "failed to get current alps touch pad driver version" when I run it.
I also tried manually installing the driver from the resource CD that came with my laptop (Latitude D830 with XP Pro). The mouse/keyboard aren't listed. I tried going through the alps listing (as well as several others), but it won't let me install the driver off the desk. Dell isn't listed in the manufacturer list.
Any ideas what to try next? I really need the touchpad buttons to work again and wouldn't mind if the cursor weren't so jumpy and difficult to place over what I want to click on.
Thanks again for taking the time to read this.
DELL-Terry B
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April 28th, 2011 12:00
Pulsarbleu
This certainly sounds frustrating. It looks like the touchpad driver has become corrupted. I suggest fully uninstalling the touchpad driver and any other mouse drivers that may be installed on the system. I would look under add remove programs and remove the Alps and look for any mouse drivers like intelimouse or logitech drivers if present. Restart the system and install the latest ALPs driver for your system.
If the problem continues you may need to reinstall Windows. The following link gives details on PC restore and manually reinstalling Windows
http://support.dell.com/support/topics/global.aspx/support/kcs/document?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs&docid=DSN_347576&isLegacy=true
If that fails to help, the touchpad may be defective. I am hoping it is just Windows corruption.
TB
pulsarbleu
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April 29th, 2011 20:00
Thank you, Terry!
I hadn't removed all of those drivers, just the one. I did have a logitech that I thought was related to my camera. It seems to be back to normal. I get notifications now that my driver is "ancient" and didn't download the new one, but that's just fine. I'll be able to do what I need to do when I can't use an external mouse. I can get into the touchpad settings again too.
DELL-Terry B
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May 2nd, 2011 17:00
I am happy to hear that everything is working correctly on the system now. I hope that I have helped.
TB